Galaga
Galaga 'is is a 1981 shoot-em-up arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was released by Midway Games. Controlling a fighter, the player is tasked with destroying the Lerner Legions in each stage while avoiding enemies and projectiles. Some enemies can capture a player's fighter via a tractor beam, which can be rescued to transform the player into a “dual fighter” with additional firepower. It is the sequel to ''Galaxian in 1979, Namco's first major shmup arcades. Development was led by Shigeru Yokoyama and a small team. Initial planning took about two months to finish. Originally developed for the Namco Galaxian arcade board, it was instead shifted to a new system as suggested by Namco's Research and Development division. Inspiration for the duel fighter mechanic was taken from a film that Yokoyama had seen prior to development, where a ship was captured using a large circular beam. The project became immensely popular around the company, with Namco's president Masaya Nakamura even taking interest. Although early location tests proved unsuccessful, Galaga received critical acclaim. It is widely regarded as a classic of the golden age of arcade video games and one of the greatest video games of all time. Critics applauded its gameplay, innovation, addictive nature and improvements made over its predecessor. Several home ports were released for a multitude of platforms, including the MSX, Atari 7800 and Nintendo Entertainment System, alongside releases on digital distribution platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade. Galaga is also included in many Namco compilations. It was followed by a sequel in 1984, Gaplus ''(also known as ''Galaga 3). Gameplay G''alaga'' is a fixed shmup video game. The player controls Gyaraga at the bottom of the screen, which must prevent the Lerner Legion forces from destroying all of mankind. The objective of each stage is to defeat all of the space bugs, known as the "Gorgs", which will fly into formation from the top and sides of the screen. Similar to Galaxian, the Gorgs will dive towards Gyaraga while shooting down projectiles; colliding with either projectiles or the Gorgs will result in a life being lost. Atop the Gorg formation are four large aliens known as "Gorg the Boss Galaga", which take two shots to destroy. These aliens can use a tractor beam to capture the player's ship, returning with it to the top of the formation and costing the player a life. Should additional lives remain, the player has an opportunity to shoot down the Boss Galaga holding the captured ship. Shooting it down as it dives towards the player will result in the captured ship being rescued, and it will join the player's ship, transforming it into a "dual fighter" with additional firepower and a larger hitbox. However, destroying Gorg with a captured ship while it is in formation will instead cause the fighter to turn against the player and act as an enemy. Some enemies have the ability to morph into new enemy types with different attack patterns, with one even taking the form of the Galaxian Flagship. Stages are indicated by emblems located at the bottom-right of the screen. Enemies become more aggressive as the game progresses, increasing their number of projectiles and diving down at a faster rate. The third stage and every fourth thereafter is a bonus stage, where the aliens fly in a pre-set formation without firing at the player. Characters '''Gyaraga The player's ship that is used by Space General Reinald. Zako The Lerner Legion's bee Goei The Lerner Legion's butterfly Gorg The Boss Galaga Sasori The Lerner Legion's scorpion Midori The Lerner Legion's stingray Galboss Galaxian Flagship from Galaxian Tonbo The Lerner Legion's dragonfly Momiji The Lerner Legion's satellite Enterprise Blue spaceship from Star Trek Gallery Zako.png|Zako Goei.png|Goei Gorg.png|Gorg Gorg (Damaged).png|Gorg (Damaged) Sasori.png|Sasori Midori.png|Midori Galaxian Flagship.png|Galaxian Flagship Tonbo.png|Tonbo Momiji.png|Momiji Enterprise.png|Enterprise Category:Arcade Category:Classic Games